Stardate 20030216.0930

(On Screen): Condi Rice is not happy. Appearing on "Meet the Press":

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice slammed the Security Council on Sunday for its determination to extend weapons inspections, saying the delay relieves pressure on Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to disarm. The United States and Great Britain began reworking a draft resolution to authorize force against Iraq over the weekend, but Rice told NBC News that time for diplomacy is running out.

The problem is that she and the other members of the Bush administration have spent months now talking about "time running out", and it never seems to. And that more than anything is relieving the pressure from Iraq.

And if, now, they introduce another Security Council resolution which offers Saddam another "last chance" to cooperate, and sets another "final deadline", then the ballgame is over. It would have been bad enough if the French had introduced such a resolution; if we do it, we will stand totally discredited.

The biggest reason that time for diplomacy is running out is that we're losing diplomatically. The longer this is dealt with in the diplomatic sphere, where we are relatively weak, the worse it's going to go for us.